What denotes the difference between a talking head spouting opinion from an analyst?

Real analysis is scientific. The intent is to prove something by using … evidence.

Someone posted to an old thread on the TD forums about best choice for a PYP from the 2016 list for a fighter. Now, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to play fighter. Sure, I’d play fighter over any of dwarf fighter, monk, or rogue, but at least the last two have some sort of interesting component to them. But, more power to people who like things I don’t when it only helps me do what I want to do.

My choice was Kvothe’s Bloodless. Now, again, because I have no interest in fighter, more generally usable tokens are going to be more appealing to me. I chose this over +1 Mighty Sling, any of the Redoubt Set, Goggles of Instant Analysis, and less relevant things.

Redoubt Set. I posted my complete lack of interest in armor and my especial lack of interest in taking save hits. Well, guess what? Plan to have a Redoubt Set by end of Gen Con. This is what comes from “value” bids on eBay and a ridiculous glut of Blessed Redoubt Plate. Now, I actually have to think about whether to trade the whole thing away or to actually upgrade to Blessed Redoubt Helm and Blessed Redoubt Shield for extra lunacy.

Anyway, I remain unconvinced normal Redoubt is good, so my thought is that anyone looking to get into the set should just figure on spending $700-1000 for a complete Blessed Set … like all true Tycoons are wont to do.

The power of +1 Mighty Sling has only grown on me as I run through various character builds. The big downfall of my madness is that Mighty Sling is pretty much the same token for $85 or whatever less. Again, for a fighter this may not be as sweet and delicious as other possibilities, such as the rumored reprint of +1 Mighty Longbow next year, but it’s an any class play, which means I just throw it into cleric builds to fill out a ranged slot and because likely no one else in our group would need to run it. We are Strange. Team Strange. Or, Team Echo. Or, Team Blow. Well, someday, aspire to Blow.

Goggles of Instant Analysis does not make virtually any of my builds. I like attributes. I have a Lenses of the Fae. I may not be helping melee beatdown, but melee beatdown is the most boring form of beatdown to me, so give me +3 Dex and maybe I don’t miss incorporeals, either. Still, I get that a fighter who probably is going to melee is going to wonder what else to bother with that is anywhere close to +2 to hit.

Speaking of +2 to hit, I’ve asked about alt builds in case we don’t just play our preferred classes, and Dave mentioned being okay with fighting but wants hit bonuses. Quite often, forumites talk of hit bonuses. One of the benefits of having a character builder handy is that I can see numbers in a more numbery way. I kind of get the need to weed over the need to bleed the more I see how easy ramping damage versus becoming a hit god is. Even my fighty builds don’t get vast, potentially oversized, on hit-eration.

Now, it was pointed out to me that Kvothe’s Bloodless sounds better than it is for TD. Wait, what? Then, what? The contrasts with TG – True Grind – are frequent. Often talk about how builds change for TG, and that’s a good thing, assuming you can get into any slots of TG, which seems unlikely given our schedules at GC, though there were openings open for slots I couldn’t make.

How much beatdown will you suffer in TD? Little sayeth the pros (and, believe me, given the buy in possibilities, pro is not far from the truth). Time is the mindkiller. The fear, when tooled up to ultra levels, is puzzle-ing because combat is one round of monster slayage or so the impression upon me has been made. Of course, that may not be the case for Team Strange. We don’t relish firepower of the eldritch god … er … set. We eschew double Viper Fang attacks. Our DPS (damage per slide) is within reason and two Strangers are preferred on cleric and bard who sit around contemplating the inadequacies of the beatdowners.

It’s slotless. Bloodless, that is. Slotless is my new slot since, sadly in a world where retirement savings matter, I don’t really need any more tokens to run hardcore or nightmare. I just need wisdom. Oh, the injokes you don’t get.

So, I’m sure this is utterly fascinating in every way, but how can we make this even more opinionated … uh … analytical?

2016 was not a good year for ultrarares. Sure, Amulet of the Champion makes many of my builds, so there’s that powercreep. And, Boots of the South Wind allowed for Boots of the Four Winds, which is like better than Shirt of the Three Dragons (ooh, ooh, proposed token path, except already have the Kilt set in progress; maybe pretend the three year Kilt is the dragon complement). But, if you take each individual ultrarare, it’s just hard to get excited in the same way that 2017 gets one enflamed.

There are 2017 tokens I still see as important. Sure, there are narrow use, “I don’t value this above like $70” ultrarares I wouldn’t mind having for amusement, like Amulet of Guarding and Belt of Thorns, but I still see greed, I mean, need, nope, greed in 2017. Hopefully, 2018 has a paucity of Strange seduction.

Time to go anti-analytical. So, it’s hard not to keep running the good stuff in builds to be as twinked out as possible on the path of Suitcasedom. But, I have thought of a colorful pastime. What do you think when I say …

RED, BLUE, and … and … maybe I’ll wear a white shirt. USA! USA! Only in Statesland can you run around with five figure character builds for TD/TG … until we export it! USA! USA!

On this day, this day when the Continental Congress voted for independence, we will consider the red, blue, and TBD white build.

Belt of Blessed Constitution, Steelclad Cloak, Charm of Health, Exalted Creeper Amulet, Greater Arcane Scrolltube, Shirt of Blessed Strength all are the bluest of the blue that we zoo. That’s not much of a fill. Okay, reds. Who gets slammed by weakosity if they go down from purple to red?

Well, I expect to have a couple Defender Sets by sometime during Gen Con. That doesn’t offend my sensibilities. The ranged weapon is obvious if you, like, can read minds. Please don’t read my mind. Seppuku for me. Let’s assume that this is TG for funsies, so treasure enhancers aren’t needed.

Boots of Agility makes a lot of my builds. Pants of Blisswalk. Bracers of Archery goes with Exalted Creeper Amulet or any of Bracers of Fire/Frost/Lightning. Gloves of Spell Negation is something I consider running in certain builds already; there’s always Gauntlets of Ogre Power.

Lenses of Focus would only work for a class that can’t Defender, so Goggles of Seeking if we have any. Cloak of Resistance +2 makes pretty much all of my builds. Oh, I should mention we have, for the moment, three Cloaks of Shadowskin, guess I was wrong about its brokenness as I don’t see the point in almost any of my builds. Still, hang on to two just in case.

Charm of the Sipquick is ubiquitous in my builds. Charm of Enlightenment if we had enough to go around. Really should be reprinted. Also should be printed is another way to pump Wisdom. Oh, and all right-thinking True types need more Rings of Greater Focus, so reprint Ring of Focus and a relic recipe.

Earcuff of Vitality. I don’t know if we own any Ramparts. Ring of Dark Health and a variety of rings we may or may not have.

This isn’t bad. As soon as I become a jaded TDer/TGer, which should take like two more runs or who knows, I’ll totally embrace USA! USA! … or, on Arbor Day, go green for that all uncommon build. Green and purple? Green and black would look stylin’ and profilin’, but am I that deep pocketed to blacken my world?

Stay tuned. Onyx do look sharp. Of course, black and red looks spiffy. Black and blue, eh, the blue is too cartoonish. Black and orange … stop, just stop, just just go back to talking about L5R 4e, which is free, and V:TES which only costs travel and Shadowfist, which is free.